1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to automatic control systems and more particularly to control systems for automatically controlling the environmental conditions within a building with electrical power consuming appliances.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The increased cost of energy has made it highly desirable that the power consumming appliances within a building be efficiently controlled. These appliances, such as heating and air-conditioning units, electric lighting, and other electrical appliances, affect the environment within the building in which the occupants thereof must perform their various functions. Prior art mechanical, electromechanical and electronic systems exist for automatically controlling power consumming appliances in a building. However, these prior art systems have one or more disadvantages which are not found in the system of the present invention. The present invention relates to an improved system for automatically controlling the environment in a building and which can be used in existing buildings or which can be installed as a building is being constructed. Solid state circuitry is utilized to gain reliability and the system is easily programmed by the user by way of a control station which includes a control panel that has displays and manually actuatable switches. In one mode of operation the displays and switches are utilized to enter a desired schedule into the control station for controlling the various power consumming appliances throughout the building. In another mode of operation the displays provide information as to the schedule stored within the control station and the manually actuatable switches can be utilized to override the stored schedule to accomodate changing conditions to provide a great degree of flexibility. The system will automatically advance the start up time for heating units dependent upon the difference between the temperature outside the building and a predetermined reference temperature. This insures that various zones within the building are at a comfortable temperature at the time that they are occupied.